A dash of white fur blew in the flash of light, Belladonna stopped spitsing her neck as her heart raced in her chest, it wasn't a gunshot, that by now her most hated sound that usually doubled up as thunder in her large triangular ears.
She sniffed in its direction, no humans present, no noise... Then what was that flash?
She carefully backed to the position and found the game camera against the tree, it took her photo... Not that she cared, not anymore, she didn't even bother destroying the camera.
The entire world knew her face, knew what she was, the last werewolf that roamed, her entire pack hunted down and she now remained the Roland award of all trophies.
No matter where she ran, no matter where she hid, her face as a human and a wolf was no secret anymore.
When the footsteps in the distance reached her ears along with the barks of dogs she ran again, the hunters still hot on her trail made Belladonna feel the moist in her eyes build to tears which streaked down her fur and blow in the wind over her back, it wasn't the snow cold air in her eyes, it was sorrow... Fear.
Man kind armed up, it was never fear that made them hunt her, no they merely saw werewolves as trophies just like any other animal, only difference is as a human the reward of live capture is doubled, as a wolf its live or dead, normal price.
She came to a halt in front of a cabin, a human structure! Her heart drummed in her ears as the door opened and the first thing she saw was the double barrels of the shotgun.
She leapt over the cabin and ran just as the two pipes thundered in her direction, they all knew her! Even here in the outskirts of Alaska this old man with his badly maintained shotgun knew her! Didn't fear her! They all wanted her dead!
It was her against the world, Belladonna spent her life running, at least after Esteban died... She felt so lonely.
For years as a pup her mother told her of how wolves should remain secret, man kind would not understand, they write books of the infamous werewolf that stalks the woods on a full moon, making sure its a creature of nightmares, not at all a thinking animal, capable of being as human as any other person.
Above all else werewolf fables were supposed to be just that, a story, folklore, spooky stuff to prevent kids to stray into the woods at night, no one would ever have expected they really exited... Or exists.
The thing was that time of the discovery no one knew who the wolf was, it could be anyone, the girl next door, the milk man, the teacher at school, everyone was suspicios of everyone.
In the beginning when the first wind about the existence of werewolves became a well talked about topic, the world lived in suspense, it wasn't fear, instead curiosity as to who? What? Where? How does a werewolf look in human form? What kind of person is this werewolf, or werewolves later discovered? They were properly bubbly eye curious like damn dragonflies.
Talk shows, the evening live news channel, even comedy theaters and YouTuber's had the topic on their tongues, the one of the wolf caught on the speeding camera of Route sixty six.
Previous footage or photos of so called werewolves were merely props, people trying the earn their moment of shine on the world wide web, and always the footage was so badly captured it was like no one could hold a camera straight, hold it still to get a good view of the wolf.
But the man driving the red Koënigsegg Agera R that one night flying down the R66 never thought that not only will he slam the fastest speeding infringement in history, but also accidentally catch a werewolf in full view, standing next to the road, just off in a bush.
Already then the very 'human' factor of what a werewolf is was shunted out the door there and then, Toby, the sixteen year old wolf was so star struck by this massively beautiful and deadly fast car that he forgot to check the poles, that one pole, which had a camera on in the middle of the desert.
Two thousand four hundred miles of the longest continuous stretch of road in the world, and that one camera caught him, thanks to a human hitting that camera at two hundred and forty five miles per hour... Is he in jail? No! He was made into a blasted hero!
Belladonna landed in a holler to catch her breath, the tears now properly dripping, there were only two packs around, one was the Nevada pack, choosing the wide open desert because of how brilliantly the moon lights up the vastness thanks to lack of human light, it was Tobi's pack, and they were caught first, shot first, killed first.
Humans are a cruel race, despite the fearsome wolves they have trained men called snipers, range was their ally and a sniper could shoot from so far away the wolf would fall before the sound reached its ears.
Belladonna remembers little Toby, he wanted to become a race driver himself, boasting about how being a wolf would aid him to be the fastest driver alive! His role model was Senna even though he didn't want to drive a formula one car.
Belladonna's pack was discovered not long after, living in the Swiss Alphs, thanks to the white fur of her pack they preferred space where it always snows.
Yes it was cold but they had the warmth in their hearts as a family, her mother and father, Esteban and his parents, then a young couple still working on a family of their own...
Now, wolves are extinct thanks to the dream of an Innocent boy, a careless wolf pup, and a race of predators who has proven to still be the apex despite any supernatural order.
Belladonna ran again, she had no choice, she feared the moon now more than ever, the brave Dark knight had his insignia strapped to a spotlight and shone to the sky when humans needed him, to Bella, the moon is such a light, but instead of it meaning her call to their help, it was her warning that she was now the predator, who became the prey.
It was about time she made her turn, in the last two years she ran Bella had to figure out different ways to elude humans, yes they couldn't smell her, Bella could even sneak so superbly they'd not even hear her... In the vast snowy frontier she can camouflage herself so well against the offset of white a human will walk right by her where she hides.
But they got smarter and smarter, classic human, using bloodhounds and thermal cameras to track her wherever she hides or runs, so instead she fools them using her speed.
She keeps a constant pace as soon as she is found then leads them away through the night, making sure she's outside of their rifle range, but still close enough to make that bloodhound buel and howl to indicate its quarry is close.
When the sun is an hour away she'd turn, backtracking wide around them then sprint as fast as her speed allowed, it was at this point her only real advantage.
Ten hours of mock running into the wilderness she can make up in an hour going flat out, by the time the hunters realized they've been taken for a ride she's already long gone.
And why doesn't she kill them...? Why not just slay the humans, wait in ambush and claw them down?
Why not bite someone and turn them?
If everything was just that easy, then there would have been more wolves, and humans would actually be afraid of her...
But Bella is a hunter, not a killer... And turning a human isn't as simple as just biting him.